Talk:Shine to Five/@comment-3041875-20170620122854
First, to address some confusions over my previous review: I wasn’t suggesting that people can’t be bailed for petty crimes, but being on bail means there's going to be a further attempt of prosecution (you're only on bail until your hearing, which is usually less than a month away). Since I can't imagine the serial killer story being interrupted for Josh's riveting trial over punching a repo-man, I assume that story is over, and so it'd probably have been easier for the charges to just be dropped. I get you wanted his mother to come to his rescue though and I suppose the hearing can happen off-screen, so that's why it was an observation and not anything bad. Also, regarding the evidence of Joe's kidnap, I meant marks of binding on Joe's wrists, not just the chains themselves, but it was a trivial point. The Good – There's a serial killer on the show, which is very exciting. Joe blaming his mother for Eli's death made sense, as did how he was transferring some of his own guilt into anger at her. The death of Jason is an interesting development, since Joe was with Silvia while it happened and now knows she's innocent, so I'm interested to see how their relationship progresses now because of this. I also really enjoyed their talk just before, as Joe explains how he sees the world to just be full of villains and mysteries, why that is and why he feels the need to solve those mysteries and defeat those villains. The revelation that Joe has a brother is also pretty intriguing, and as is the presence of his name on Troy O'Neil's hand, even if the details around the stunt coordinator do still feel a bit extraneous/random. Overall, I like though that we had several deaths this episode, and right on the back of Eli's, as it really does give the feeling that this is going to be quite the bloodbath that you guy's promised it would be. I do hope, though, that some more notable characters will also be among the victims soon, to give more emotional impact, otherwise it will feel like the story's being a little too chicken. The scene of Rena witnessing Eli's death was also very strong, and I liked that the killer was wearing a mask, adding quite a unique and creepy touch. Rena agreeing to try and free Liz for Mary also made sense, and I really enjoyed the moment between them near the end, as they both came to realise they were each to blame for some things, and it revealed quite a bit about their characters and their relationship. Rena's best moment, however, was telling Silvia to get off the road while he drove her car – that was brilliantly funny! I also really enjoyed Liz's time in prison (even if I had some confusion over what evidence they had to arrest her, since the video was just motive and no proof of anything, but yeah I know – the cops are terrible). I liked the scene of her arrest, with Mary adding some humour to the moment again, and her run-in with Yas being the end of act one. The reveal that Kristi has moved on from Rena and started a fan club over Liz was very good. While, Liz's time in prison was short-lived, I did really enjoy it while it lasted, and it was a lot of fun, with Liz having her fan club starve themselves to death and then her and Yas planning to take over the prison just before rescue came for Liz. Nice story, and clever way of including prior characters. I really enjoyed Ben and Joanna's first scene, as I could feel the uncomfortableness, it was humorous (Joanna's drinking is always a source of some good jokes), and I liked the idea of Ben wanting to help his employer but her being hesitant to let him too close. I also liked Joe talking through with Ben why not being able to confide in Ali was bothering him. In their later scene, while I thought Joanna was a little too rude to Ben, and he was possibly a little inappropriate, I like that they made a break-through in the end and bonded over the difficulties they’ve both had over trying to be parents. I enjoyed Ali trying to use James as a substitute for Ben, but it not working out. Her rantings and concerns for Liz were nice and resembled characterisation more similar to her season one self. Josh reacting to Liz's arrest by assuring Mary that Brad could deal with it suited his season's story and I enjoyed the scenes between him and Mary enough, especially when I could feel Mary's uncomfortableness. I also liked the scene of all the butlers together (though a little less than I do usually, if I'm honest, but it's maybe just because the atmosphere was less positive, with the friends being uncomfortable around Josh and them being upset that other butlers were working for certain new employers; but, generally, the dialogue in the scene was good). Neutral Observations – I think I totally misinterpreted this, but it seemed like Cassie conned Ali into giving her the necklace. I probably misunderstood, since Cassie has previously been so sweet, or perhaps it's part of something bigger, but just how Cassie said, "If you insist", with a sly smile, instead of thanking her sister, made the moment incredibly cold. Either way, I'm not sure what I was supposed to get from that moment. Cassie drawing pictures that she won't let Ali see adds further to the obvious, that Marvin abused Ali and then Cassie, but I'm thinking and hoping there's more to it than that. Maybe I'm taking this too seriously, but I find Josh's current mental state quite confusing, though still interesting. If he was consciously unaware of Brad's death, but subconsciously aware, then that would be one thing, but he appears to be both consciously aware of both at differing moments. Like Locke said in 105 of Lost, "Crazy people don't know they're crazy", so I find it hard to believe how he can believe his delusions one moment and then know Brad's dead the next. Denial is usually the first stage of grief, yes, but it's a denial over your own pain, not of the actual death, and though complete denialism over a death can occur, the person would completely believe their fabrications. A degree of cognitive dissonance is possible, when a person thinks one thing but behaves in a way that's in contradiction to their thoughts (which can lead to reaction formation, like closeted gays being homophobic), but Josh seems to have two thoughts over what happened. I remember in George Orwell's 1984, there was a condition called doublethink, in which the citizens simultaneously held opposing views of the government, and when asked about it Orwell claimed it was a real condition because he thought Fundamentalist Christians understood when they came across contradictions in the bible that they were contradictions but believed them anyway. I have no real point to any of this, I don’t think, and maybe I've misunderstood things and the part of Josh that knows Brad's dead is subconscious, but it didn’t seem that way to me, which is unusual. EDIT - After talking to Jo, I see that I misunderstood in '''301', when I thought Josh was accepting what Joe was telling him about Brad. So, Josh is indeed consciously unaware, but subconsciously aware, which makes more sense. The Bad – The lack of evidence over Liz's arrest. Yes, I know, the police in this town are terrible and it's now one of the established elements of the show. This cartoonish part of the show still doesn’t sit so right with me though, not like other's do such as Joanna's humorous drinking problem, and I think because it seems to only serve as a way of allowing stories to happen without much believable cause. While I love stories to end with some consequence and an obvious development onto another story, I'm not sure Joanna plotting to steal Ben's babies was really the consequence I wanted from her bonding with Ben. It's not really the way to strengthen their new bond, anyway. The ending to the scene was also pretty odd, like a cheesy moment where the villain plots some terrible scheme. If this is the route Joanna's story is going down, I'm pretty hesitant about it, because it seems like something that will be irredeemable. Val commenting on how Jennifer wouldn’t know about raising a baby was just too inappropriate; why would Jennifer keep Val around after that? Later, I thought for a moment that Jennifer was going to attack Val or the baby or something, but then she suddenly became un-brainwashed and killed Andrew. It all just happened so quickly that it came across really random. I was never a fan of Jennifer's marriage to Andrew in season two, anyway, which was also too fleeting, and so this ending did nothing for me. While I enjoyed Josh's scenes with Mary enough, his story just seemed to reinforce the idea that he's crazy. Where's the development in his story? Where's his friends trying to help him, what's he going to do about his declining state and where's it all leading? It didn’t seem to be leading anywhere this episode, so I hope it picks-up in the next. Best Butler – Joe was the best butler again, because of his scene with Silvia, but Liz probably stole the show more than he did this episode, and I also really enjoyed Rena's character again, as well as Mary's. Josh's story has a lot of potential, but it needs to pick-up some if it's to be as strong again as it was in 301. Overall – Good episode, with mostly pretty strong stories, and I'm very interested in the serial killer plot. Maybe not as strong as the previous couple, but still solid. As always, thanks for sharing your story with us; I enjoy reading it.